| |
|
|
|
| Introduction
| Albert Lasker can justifiably
be called the founder of the modern advertising
industry. Albert, the son of a wealthy Galveston,
Texas banker, Morris Lasker, became interested in
journalism in his early youth. Upon graduation from
high school, his first job was with the Galveston
Morning News. Disapproving of his son's journalism
career, Morris Lasker managed to persuade his son
to try an advertising position with the Lord and
Thomas agency in Chicago, Illinois. Albert Lasker
reluctantly accepted the position with Lord and
Thomas, fully intending to only stay a few weeks
to satisfy his father. Surprisingly, Albert Lasker
was with Lord and Thomas for forty-four years. |
 |
| A. The Early Years |
 |
Albert Lasker began his job at Lord
and Thomas as an office clerk. After a year, Lasker
asked for and was granted a chance to try his luck
as a salesman, soliciting accounts in Indiana, Ohio,
and Michigan. He was an immediate success. Before
the next year was over, Lasker made another daring
move. He asked Mr. Thomas to put him in charge of
a few accounts that were not making any money so
he could practice copy writing. Within a year, he
achieved a dramatic success with a hearing aid company.
Both Mr. Lord and Mr. Thomas were impressed with
Lasker's ingenuity, which in turn caused a fond
rapport to develop among the three men. In 1903,
when Mr. Lord retired, Lasker purchased his share
of the business, thus becoming a partner in Lord
and Thomas.
|
| B. Search for Principles
of Advertising |
| Through his early
experiences at Lord and Thomas, Lasker discovered
the power of advertising and became consumed with
the quest to uncover the underlying principles of
advertising. He found his answer in 1904 when John
E. Kennedy, a former member of the Canadian Mounted
Police who was working as a copy writer for Dr.
Shoop's Restorative, offered this explanation. --
"Advertising is Salesmanship in Print ('and on the
air')".
Kennedy went on to explain that advertising
should give the potential reader the reasons why.
In essence, advertising should explain why the product
being advertised was a better buy than competing
products or alternative uses of the consumer's limited
budget.
Albert Lasker saw merit in Kennedy's
views and explanation of the principles of advertising.
He hired Kennedy to work with him at Lord and Thomas.
Kennedy stressed hat the way the ad copy was written
was crucial to advertising. Lasker began to perceive
the need for a copy writing department. He hired
several young newspapermen and trained them according
to Kennedy's advertising prescription. Thus Lasker
created the first systematically trained copy writing
staff in America. Kennedy soon left Lord and Thomas
to establish his own business but not before Lasker
was able to obtain the knowledge and understanding
of advertising he needed.
|
|
|
|
With the
new emphasis on copy writing, Lasker started Lord
and Thomas on the road to becoming the industry
leader. In 1908, Lasker hired Claude C. Hopkins,
one of the most gifted copy writers of all time.
Hopkins shared Lasker's views of what advertising
should be. He was quick and effective. Hopkins was
able to develop an effective advertsing campaign
within 24 hours of visiting a client. With Hopkins
aboard, Lord and Thomas would soon become the largest
advertising agency in the world.
Some of the most
memorable accounts of these early years were: The
California Fruit Growers Exchange which later became
the Sunkist
Growers Inc., and Van Camp's
canned pork and beans. |
| C. Ventures Outside of
Lord and Thomas |
| Leaving the
active management of Lord and Thomas to Claude Hopkins,
Albert Lasker engaged in politics and briefly baseball
between 1918 and 1923. In 1918 Lasker went to New
York to direct the publicity program for the Republican
National Committee during the congressional campaign.
In 1920 he led the unsuccessful drive to make Hiram
Johnson the Republican presidential candidate. He
then took charge of the publicity for Harding's successful
1920 presidential race. In the process he introduced
"modern" advertising techniques to politics. Upon
Harding's inauguration, Harding appointed Lasker chairman
of the U.S. Shipping Board, where he served for two
years. |
|
 |
In 1916, Lasker purchased a large
block of stock in the Chicago Cubs baseball organization.
He soon became the controlling stockholder. In 1919
amidst claims that gamblers had bribed ball players
to throw the World Series, Lasker took it upon himself
to do something to restore the game to it's former,
honorable place. He fought long and hard for an
outside, unbiased authority to run the game. And
so it was that Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis became
the first baseball commissioner.
During this time a good friend of
Albert Lasker's became a stockholder of the Chicago
Cubs organization, William Wrigley, a Chicago chewing
gum manufacturer. In 1925, Lasker sold his interest
in the Cubs to Wrigley. Lasker is largely responsible
for the decision to change the name of the playing
field from Cubs Park to Wrigley Field. |
| D.
The Second Advertising Career
While Lasker was away, Lord and Thomas
slipped from its position as the largest firm in
the advertising business. Returning in September
of 1923, Lasker set out to regain the industry leadership
position. Some of the important accounts of this
time were Kimberly
Clark, Pepsodent
toothpaste, and American Tobacco Company's Lucky
Strike cigarettes. |
|
|
In 1926, Lasker
entered a new advertising medium - radio. He introduced
his "Salesmanship in print" formula to radio and the
radio commercial as it is known today was born. Lasker
had the ability to capitalize on emerging opportunities.
The Amos and Andy show was created by Lord and Thomas
as a medium to advertise Pepsodent. Later a struggling
young comedian named Bob Hope was given a chance to
make a success of a radio show for Pepsodent. Lord
and Thomas were the first to broadcast the Metropolitan
Opera, "authentic" police and FBI dramas and to chain
sponsor Football games.
For a brief time in the 1930's, Lord and Thomas
regained its position as the biggest advertising
agency in the world.
|
| E. Years of Discontent
|
| In the mid 1930's, Albert
Lasker began to lose interest in business affairs.
One reason was undoubtedly the successful achievement
of his goal of industry leadership. More importantly
was the death of his wife, Flora, in December of 1936.
After 33 years of marriage, her death left him discontented
and caused him to seek new friends, activities, and
distractions. Lasker became disenchanted with the
advertising business stating the pioneering had disappeared.
As the use of advertising grew, major clients began
to question and evaluate the advertising campaigns
developed by Lord and Thomas. This angered Lasker,
causing him to voluntarily give up major accounts
with Quaker Oats, RCA and General Electric.
Lasker retired as president in 1938 from Lord and
Thomas after his son, Edward, failed to embark on
an advertising career. He retained ownership, but
Don Francisco became the active manager of Lord
and Thomas. In 1942, Albert Lasker decided to leave
Lord and Thomas. He decided to liquidate the firm
so that the name Lord and Thomas would cease to
be used. At this same time he was instrumental in
creating a new firm to carry on the work of the
existing clients. The new firm was named " Foote,
Cone and Belding" and its owner-managers were Lasker's
three senior executives at the time - Emerson Foote
in New York, Fairfax
Cone in Chicago and Don Belding in California.
Lasker solicited all of his clients to continue
with the new company. All but one client stayed
with Foote, Cone and Belding.
|
|
| F. The Last Decade
|
 |
Having retired from the business in
1938, Albert Lasker entered into a new life of public
affairs and philanthropy. He met Mary Woodard Reinhardt,
a New York industrial designer in 1939. They were
married in 1940 in New York. His financial contributions
and active promotional activities were responsible
for major expansions in the nation's medical research
activities. He and Mary established the Albert and
Mary Lasker Foundation to support medical research.
In 1944, he spearheaded a fund raising drive that
nearly doubled the amount of money spent on cancer
research in the United States. He pursued the idea
of getting the federal government more involved in
medical research. Through Lasker's efforts the National Institutes of Health
was established over the period of 1946- 1950. During
this period he became ill and on May 30, 1952 he died
at the age of 73. |
| Conclusion
|
 |
Albert Lasker's ingenuity and unique
ability to explain the product being advertised using
the philosophy of "Advertising is Salesmanship in
Print" have earned him the title of Founder of Modern
Advertising by his peers. His focus on the ad copy
and establishment of the copy write department were
crucial to the advertising industry's evolution. Lasker's
creative use of coupons, radio, and potential to see
alternative uses for products were keys to his success
and the success of Lord and Thomas.
Copyright
© 1995 Illinois Business Hall of Fame. All Rights
Reserved. |
|
|
|
